Spiral ring-type construction with a single spiral central stairwell

ABSTRACT

A building comprises a plurality of multi-story building sectors, each building sector having a trapezoidal horizontal cross section and the building sectors forming a polygonal ring enclosing an inner courtyard, a staircase housing in the inner courtyard, a spiral staircase in the staircase housing, the staircase winding circularly in an upward direction, and connecting passages radiating from the staircase to respective ones of the stories of the building sectors at staggered vertical distances. Successive stories in the upwardly winding direction of the spiral staircase in adjacent ones of the building sectors are vertically staggered from each other by the same vertical distances as the connecting passages.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a polygonal building structureenclosing an inner courtyard in which a central staircase is connectedby passages to the surrounding building structure.

2. Description of the Prior Art

In polygonal buildings of this type, the individual building sectors andthe stories in these building sectors are not laid out in such a mannerthat the initial structure need not be altered with a change of its sizeand where, moreover, all the building sectors and stories may be reachedat any level from the central staircase.

The building construction according to German patent No. 2,065,437comprises building sectors of rectangular horizontal cross section,rather than the trapezoidal construction, which makes ready expansionpossible. Nor does it involve a spiral construction matching thevertically upwardly winding staircase to vertically staggered stories inthe adjacent building sectors.

European patent No. 118,723 discloses a parking garage having acylindrical outer wall and an upwardly winding spiral driveway.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is one of the objects of this invention to provide a polygonallyshaped building with building sectors facing south, west, north andeast.

It is another object of the invention to provide a multi-story buildingstructure composed of trapezoidal building sectors with verticallystaggered stories which form a spiral and forming a ring around acentral staircase. Such a ring, divided into trapezoidal buildingsectors, may change its circumference and may be expanded to any desiredsize without changing the basic structure of the building sectors. Ifsuccessive stories are so staggered vertically that they form anupwardly winding spiral, a three-dimensional structure is obtained whichmaintains its basic structure at any size. The polygonal shape may be atriangle or any other polygon, such as a pentagon or a hexagon. Toobtain the desired vertical staggering of the stories in the adjacentbuilding sectors, the ground floors in the adjacent building sectorscontinuously increase in height. Connecting passages radiate from thecentral staircase to the vertically staggered stories.

The above and other objects are accomplished according to the presentinvention with a building comprising a plurality of multi-story buildingsectors, each building sector having a trapezoidal horizontal crosssection and the building sectors forming a polygonal ring enclosing aninner courtyard, a staircase housing in the inner courtyard, a spiralstaircase in the staircase housing, the staircase winding circularly inan upward direction, and connecting passages radiating from thestaircase to respective ones of the stories of the building sectors atstaggered vertical distances. Successive stories in the upwardly windingdirection of the spiral staircase in adjacent ones of the buildingsectors are vertically staggered from each other by the same verticaldistances as the connecting passages.

According to one feature, the connecting passages are uniformlydistributed around the staircase housing. The building sectors may bearranged about a common center and extend over identical angles withrespect to the common center. If desired, at least one group of buildingsectors has a different distance from the common center than otherbuilding sectors.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The above and other objects, advantages and features of this inventionwill now be described in more detail in connection with certainpreferred embodiments thereof illustrated in the accompanying schematicdrawing wherein

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a pentagon-shaped building comprisingbuilding sectors with four stories;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the building of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a like building of hexagonal shape, including agroup of expanded building sectors; and

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic side view of a hexagonal building, showing thevertically staggered stories in the adjacent building sectors.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the drawing, like reference numerals designate like parts functioningin a like manner in all figures.

Referring first to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown a building comprising aplurality of multi-story building sectors 7. Each building sector has atrapezoidal horizontal cross section and the building sectors form apentagonal ring enclosing inner courtyard 8. Staircase housing 9 in theinner courtyard holds spiral staircase 9 a, the staircase windingcircularly in an upward direction. Connecting passages 10 radiate fromthe staircase to respective ones of stories 1, 2 and 3 of buildingsectors 7 at staggered vertical distances. Successive stories in theupwardly winding direction of spiral staircase 9 a in adjacent buildingsectors 7 are vertically staggered from each other by the same verticaldistances as the connecting passages.

As shown in the drawing, connecting passages 10 are uniformlydistributed around staircase housing 9. Building sectors 7 are arrangedabout a common center and extend over identical angles with respect tothe common center.

FIG. 1 shows that the lowest ground floor 0.15 in one building sector 7is adjacent to the highest ground floor 0.16 in the adjacent buildingsector, the ground floors continuously increasing in height insuccessive building sectors, as best shown in FIG. 4. With stories 1, 2and 3 superposed on the ground floors and each other, respectively, tobe vertically staggered from each other, this automatically causes thelevels of the terraced roof-tops to differ from building sector tobuilding sector, as shown at 12 and 22.

Access gallery 13 winds along all the stories at the courtyard side ofthe polygonal ring of building sectors 7 and, due to the verticallystaggered arrangement of the stories in the adjacent building sectors, afew steps are provided at intersections 14 of the adjacent buildingsectors.

FIG. 2 shows staircase housing 9 at the center of the polygonal buildingstructure, with connecting passages 10 radiating like spokes from thecentral staircase housing in courtyard 8 to building sectors 7. Thispentagon shape illustrates best how the geometric form may be used toadapt to desired conditions. As far as the incidence of light isconcerned, for example, it is most suitable if the apex points north.

In the above-described structure, upper stories 1, 2, 3, which aresuperposed on ground floors of constantly increasing height from onebuilding sector to the adjacent building sector, automatically windupwards in a spiral course. The difference in the height of the groundfloors is determined on the basis of the number of building sectorsforming the polygonal ring. For instance, in a hexagonal buildingstructure, with an intended upper story height of 3 m and a height of 3m for the lowest ground floor 0.15, the height of the highest groundfloor 0.16 will be 5.5 m. The individual graduation of the heights ofthe ground floors in the adjacent building sectors results in the factthat, upon completion of one full cycle 1.4, the new cycle 2.6 will beon top of preceding cycle 1.4.

If architecturally desired or otherwise necessary because of a peculiarutilization, some building sectors may differ in size from otherbuilding sectors in certain polygons. In an octagon, for instance, thelength of the building sectors facing each other may be of differentlength than the adjacent building sectors. However, in all embodiments,the building sectors must be of trapezoidal horizontal cross section.

When constructing the building of the present invention, it isappropriate to start with the erection of the vertical side walls of thetrapezoid separating the adjacent building sectors. The verticallystaggered ceilings/floors are then placed between the somewhatstar-shaped walls of the building sectors. Such a structure is earthquake-proof.

Spiral staircase 9 a starts at the ground level or comes up from abasement floor of a subterraneous parking garage and spirally windsupwards within housing 9. At the level of the first upper story 1.4,first connecting passage 11 leads from the staircase to story 1.4 whichis on top of ground floor 0.15 of the lowest height. Second connectingpassage 17, which is some steps higher, leads at an oblique angle fromfirst connecting passage 11 to next higher story 1.5 in the adjacentbuilding sector. After a complete helical cycle, the first connectingpassage 18 of the succeeding cycle leads to the second upper story 2.6.The height of the connecting passages thus depends on the number of thestories in the building sectors around it. Exits 19 of staircase 9 aprovide access to the roofs of the structures holding the connectingpassages, and these roofs lead to the roof-top terraces of buildingsectors 7.

The central staircase structure in an inner courtyard enclosed by thebuilding sectors offers considerable advantages for the utilization ofthe building because the connecting passages may be used for variouspurposes, the distance to remote and opposite sectors of the building isoptimized and shortened, and they improve the resistance to tectonictremors, etc. In practice, it will depend on the concrete requirementsand on architectural concepts if and how many passages lead from thecentral staircase to the surrounding building sectors. In a hexagonalbuilding ring, it might be appropriate to build three crossings from thecentral staircase structure to the leg-side area of two adjacenttrapezoidal building sectors, thereby providing access to two storieswith a single corridor.

The dimensions of central staircase structure 9 as well as connectingpassages 10 will to a large extent depend on the size and the intendedutilization of the polygon building. In a very large residentialcomplex, for example, it would make sense to size the connectingpassages so as to create sufficient space for various activities. Thecentral staircase housing may be large enough to hold an elevator orescalator, walkways and/or driveways. The terraced nature of the rooftops of the adjacent building sectors may be used for gardens, ifdesired, the graduation between adjacent sections of the roof topterraces providing excellent conditions for irrigation and drainage. Thelowest roof top terrace 22 may be used for installing a water cistern.

As shown in FIG. 3, one group 20 of building sectors 7 arranged in ahexagonal ring around central staircase housing 9 has a differentdistance from the common center than other building sectors 7. Accessgallery 13 is shown in broken lines.

FIG. 4 diagrammatically illustrates the graduated heights of the groundfloors 0.15 and 0 in the six adjacent building sectors 7 and thevertically staggered upper stories 1, 2, 3.

The above-described and illustrated construction offers maximumflexibility as far as employment of usable space is concerned. Withouthaving to change the basic structure or layout of rooms, any desiredtotal area may be chosen by expanding or constricting the inscribed ringor building circumference. The available surface area may be utilized toa very large extent for building since green plots and/or recreationalfacilities may be located in the inner courtyard, and parking may beprovided underneath the inner courtyard in subterranean parking lots.The inner courtyard with the roofs on the spoke-like connecting passagestructures gives residents many possibilities to style and organize thisarea individually and according to their requirements. The centralstaircase promotes communication between the residents in the separatebuilding sectors. Formed as a pentagon, for example, the building canachieve a more efficient orientation, the largest side facing southwardswhile the small point faces northwards. As shown in FIG. 2, thisconstruction assures optimal lighting conditions, i.e. an apartmentlocated in the northeast sector faces southwest in the direction of theinner courtyard. As the trapezoidal building sectors have their smallersides facing the courtyard while their wider sides face outwardly, itallows a maximum incidence of light towards the inside while broadeningthe view when looking towards the outside.

The closed ring structure of the building avoids extra outer wallsneeded in spaced-apart buildings. Access galleries 13 facing innercourtyard 8 may be roofed arcades winding spirally up from the groundfloor to the roof top. Since leisure time and shopping facilities aredesirable in large residential complexes, the ground floors of differentheights provide optimal and varied space conditions for such facilities.

The ring building is extremely earth-quake proof. The adjoining buildingsectors support each other and are, furthermore, reinforced and heldtogether with the central staircase structure by the spoke-likeconnecting passages. The spiral layout enables one to walk straightahead to any story along the spiral staircase and the selectedconnecting passage and return the same way.

What is claimed is:
 1. A building comprising (a) a plurality ofmulti-story building sectors, each building sector having a trapezoidalhorizontal cross section and the building sectors forming a polygonalring enclosing an inner courtyard, (b) a staircase housing in the innercourtyard, (c) a spiral staircase in the staircase housing, thestaircase winding circularly in an upward direction, and (d) connectingpassages radiating from the staircase to respective ones of the storiesof the building sectors at staggered vertical distances, (1) successivestories in the upwardly winding direction of the spiral staircase inadjacent ones of the building sectors being vertically staggered fromeach other by the same vertical distances as the connecting passages. 2.The building of claim 1, wherein the connecting passages are uniformlydistributed around the staircase housing.
 3. The building of claim 1,wherein the building sectors are arranged about a common center andextend over identical angles with respect to the common center.
 4. Thebuilding of claim 3, wherein at least one group of building sectors hasa different distance from the common center than other building sectors.